Part 2 Sponsorship

Crowd Funding has now closed at Offbeatr. Thankyou everyone who supported us. It was touch and go for a while, but we made our base target with minutes to spare. :O

http://offbeatr.com/project/redemption-of-the-crimson-empress-part-2-67812055153

Sunday 29 December 2013

Weekly Update

Seasons Greetings to All,

It has been a productive week this week for me. The game is coming into shape. The mechanisms for gaining spells and spell points are now in place, I fixed up some deficiencies with collecting stats, and I am well into the debugging of the main game.

We are still a long way short on images, but those are coming. Meanwhile the game is nearly playable if you don't mind place holder images. The trick now is to get everything balanced correctly. Getting things balanced between too hard and too easy.

The above image is for one of the easier characters. The left hand scale is Seduction skill and the top scale is the her disposition + nymphomania.

As she starts to like you more and you get more skilled, you can see that the numbers increase. The shaded zone takes into account her starting nymphomania. The numbers are the cards dealt into the hand and into the centre.

Anyhow, things are going reasonable well at present and if I make good progress this week, I will get a version out to our testing group to shake down.




Sunday 22 December 2013

Weekly Update

Seasons greetings to all. It has been a week of slow but steady progress although one of our artists went backwards due to a hard drive getting wiped out.

I have been working on the part 2 main navigation screens. The pics below are the characters you can encounter at 6pm in the set locations. (The game day is broken into 8 x 3 hour slots.) That sounds a bit odd I know, but hopefully it will be intuitive when you play the game.

First, the main throne room:


Next is in the Gardens:
Finally is roaming around the palace knocking on doors:




Hopefully by next week, I will have the code working so that things don't just crash when I click on one of those cards. :)





Sunday 15 December 2013

Weekly Update

Busy, tired, and generally blech. It is that time of year. Christmas is coming and there is so much to do. While I would like to give you all a new release as a Christmas present, realistically it is not going to happen. Early in the new year though, ...

In the game building side of things, there are fun things to do and then there are things that you just have to grind away at until they are done. I am kind of in one of the grind tasks at the moment. Once I get through that though, progress should be quicker.

This is one of the menu screens I am working on. It is not yet finished, but it will essentially be click on card to talk to character (or entice them into doing more than talking ...)







Sunday 8 December 2013

Weekly Update

Another slow-ish week. It is about 2 weeks to my Christmas hols and that should help things move along a bit more.

Most of my focus this week was on getting the scene below done. It is the background for one of the main selection screens so it has been important to get done. The Black Friday sales are over and we got a bit of stuff. 50% off on some of the resources we need for the game help to stretch the budget.

Everyone has been making progress on their scenes, and I should be starting to get some of those into the game soon.



Sunday 1 December 2013

Weekly Update

It has been a slow week this week. Real life has gotten in the way for a few of us, but we are still moving forward at least.

I am concentrating on coding and support graphics right now and am setting up the main screens for the different areas of the Palace.

If you have tried out the last release, you will have already seen the navigation screen for the player's apartment.

Now I have to do similar screens for visiting court, the gardens, other peoples quarters.

We are still a bit aways from the next release and it may have a lot of placeholder graphics in it, but with some time off over Christmas I hope to have something substantial early in the new year.



Sunday 24 November 2013

Weekly Update

Well, it has been and week and not a highly productive one for me. Still I have put the first of the Kitaxxa scenes into the game and I am debugging it right now.

There probably won't be a release for a few weeks at least. The Kitaxxa scenes are more for the middle of the game and not the beginning. The artists are mostly working on the critical scenes first, not taking it it game order.

I will be working on things in game order now though for a while and you may see a lot of placeholder images in the next release, but hopefully you will start to get a better idea of what part 2 of the game is like.

BGrisset has just started to work on some of the Cerise images that are used in the early part of Part 2 so you will be seeing some excellent images soon I am sure.

This week I will leave you with one of my favourite pieces of architecture which you will see a little of in Part 2. It is the main Audience Hall for the Court of the Crimson Empress. (This first scenes or Part 2 are in the smaller private hall.)


Sunday 17 November 2013

Weekly Update

It has been a quiet week for us this week. Release 1.4 seems to be reasonably sound from the lack of comments which is not bad considering there has been over 400 downloads.

MedialFiles gives us total download numbers and Release 1.2.3 has had over 11,000 downloads which is pretty amazing I think.

There were some great suggestions in the survey. The card images are all rendered at twice the resolution you see them on the screen, so I am sure we can have some way of looking at those in full resolution as someone suggested.
The first Kitaxxa set of images is now complete and I am putting them into the game, reworking some of the code as I go.

A large part of Part 2 is about winning friends and allegiances through seducing them and having them fall for you basically. With Kitaxxa though, you do have to be careful not to get her too excited or you may need medical attention ...


Saturday 9 November 2013

New Release

You can download the new release here: http://www.mediafire.com/download/hb6lhol5hzf467g/ROCE-R1.4.0-all.zip
Caution, this is a large download for only a relatively small amount of new content. Most of the work is in the new spell system which is not really triggered until later in the game.
If you get to a screen where you cannot work out what to do, click on the tent. :D
This update concludes the introductory material for Part 2. After this you get to start playing card games again.

Tuesday 5 November 2013

Survey Results

 Thankyou to everyone who responded to our survey. There was a lot of great information in there.

Congratulations respondent # 102 (of 115) for winning the draw. Your sponsor's site login details are in your EAZ inbox.

The basic statistics from the responses are below.

There were some great suggestions and I will be working through them as well.

There was a great suggestion about translations in exchange for access to the deluxe edition and we will look at that when the game is getting close to done. Translating too soon will be a maintenance nightmare I feel.

I will be looking at the alternate dark path closely. I think the animations are a given. The dark path will depend on what we can earn through comic sales and other revenue streams as we will not use the crowd funding money for that (and it is already fully committed).

For the dark path, we will need to work out if we can do something meaningful and interesting with the money we raise before we do it.

Summary

Would you buy a deluxe version of Redemption of the Crimson Empress or just stick with the free version?

I will just play the free version1715%
I will play the free version and if I like it will buy the deluxe version.6558%
I will buy the deluxe version.2119%
I will pirate the deluxe version.33%
I will pirate the deluxe version and if it is really good, I will buy it.76%

What would be a fair price for the deluxe version?

$5109%
$103229%
$153834%
$202018%
$3022%
I would not buy it.98%

What feature would you most like to see in the deluxe version?

Animated Scenes5346%
An alternate darker path through the story (where Bailey goes to the dark side)5548%
Other65%

What would be your second choice for features in the deluxe version?

Animated Scenes5551%
An alternate darker path through the game3734%
Other1615%

Comic plus bonus access to deluxe material/version

No thanks6456%
I would pay $10 for that.3833%
I would pay $20 for that.1211%

Preferred Language

English9584%
Deutsch54%
Français44%
Polski22%
русский11%
Español22%
Italiano22%
Other22%


Sunday 3 November 2013

Weekly Update

Well, it has been another busy week. I have given out Release 1.4 to a small set of people to look at and if there are no major problems I will make it generally available next weekend.

Release 1.4 finishes off the intro to Part 2 and you get to see one of the main navigation points. It also adds the spell system (in game helpers) although you won't be able to use them until later in the game unless you have the debug version.

The survey has gone really well and we have well over 100 responses. Thankyou to everyone who responded and we will be selecting the lucky winner in the next day or two.

Our artists are currently working on the most important scenes, but as we get through those, we can start working through things in game order a bit more. Initially I wanted to focus our resources on on what was most important, not what came first.

One of the survey respondents wanted to know how we were going and where we are up to, so I will try to give you some basic statistics as we know them now:

There are 64 image sequences in Part 2 of the game. Of those about 12 are either complete or well underway. It is hard to pin down exactly because we are doing some of them in parallel as it is more efficient that way. Sequences will have a minimum of 4 images each with some being 20 or 30, but don't expect a lot of those.

An April 2014 beta of the complete game is what we are aiming for and that is still looking good as a goal.

Outside of the art work, the code skeleton is in place and I am working back through it, putting in a simplified framework that I have developed for handling events. This should make it easier for to writers to take work with the game dialog as well.

Here is a sneak peek at Spells screen I mentioned above. You will not get all the spells at once, so you won't see the screen quite this full until you are well into the game.



That's it for today. Coming soon will be the announcement of the winner of the contest and Release 1.4.


Monday 28 October 2013

Should I rise to the bait!

For the most part, I have loved reading through the survey answers. Almost everyone has been really supportive and I do encourage you to be honest, but I could not let this one go past without clarifying some things:
Deluxe edition is a mistake that will lose you money. People funded you to make the free version of the game; telling them they have to pay to get the 'real' game is an extended middle finger and just going to get your game pirated heavily. You guys seriously want to try and police the entire Internet to get links taken down after release (spoliers: you'll fail)?

If you insist on this route, wait 6 months after initial full release to launch the deluxe edition. It'll be less of a "FUCK YOU" to the people who funded you, and people who want more may be more willing to pay.
Seriously, you don't get a gallery without paying? You guys serious?
  1.  The deluxe version may lose us money, but we are SELF funding the extra bits. It is OUR money. We are NOT using the money from the crowd funding to pay for those extra bits.
  2. While I have not made it widely known perhaps, the people who donated money have already been informed that they will get the deluxe version for free. These people saved the project and we are certainly not going to insult them by hitting them up for extra cash.
  3. I fully expect it to get pirated to some degree. As much as you hope that does not happen, we know that it will. Research shows though that it can be helpful in the long run. If it is worth pirating, a lot of people will decide it is worth paying for. Ultimately, if people want to pirate from us, that is their problem.

    We practice what we preach. The art work we make is based on building blocks purchased from small artists through online stores. We have paid for everything that we have used. If we did not make it ourselves or it was not freeware, we paid for it.
  4. I have never considered a gallery core functionality. I was not even going to do one until a couple of people asked. There is no DRM on our game and you can easily browse to the folder where the scenes are kept.
  5. The standard version is the 'real' game. As we have been working on the game, we have seen an opportunity to do something more, to go beyond what we promised. It will cost US more in time and resources, but the comic will cover some of that and the rest is based on people buying the game at the end. Also, it makes sense for us to do the extra content while we are working on scenes, while the inspiration is there and not go back after.
Our goal has always been to be open and honest, and to treat people as we would like to be treated ourselves.

Everyone on the team, commissioned or volunteer has gone way beyond what was expected of them. They are passionate about what they do. They thrive on your praise. It keeps them motivated. Not being able to work on something this month because they can't yet afford the required resources or have to use something that does not really fit as a replacement instead, is demotivating.

I hope that clears up things. If any of you still think we are wrong to do what we are doing, then we will have to agree to disagree.

I apologise to the anonymous survey respondent for using your words without attribution or permission. You left no contact details.














Friday 25 October 2013

Redemption of the Crimson Empress - The Survey

Ok, so this sounds boring, but answer this survey and you could join our 77 Offbeatr contributors, getting access to the supporter's web site and RotCE Premium when it comes out.

Ok, Ok, I am getting ahead of myself aren't I? I did mention in the last post that we are looking at two versions.

RotCE Standard: This is basically what we promised in our crowd funding.

RotCE Premium: We are looking to pull in some of the features from our extension goals as well as other goodies and get them done in parallel with the standard game.

We have yet to nail down all the differences, but for Premium expect double or triple the images for each sex scene from what was in Part 1 with some animations thrown in. Standard will be like Part 1.

You can have a say in what is Premium. Help us work out how much and what kind of things we can put into the Premium version: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/19VvVbIymUHdaxFVUfm_w20B8gAnZyrBEzvGuOArsdSY/viewform

Enter you EroticArtZone user name (free registration if you don't have one) to have a chance to win access to the supporters web site. (One entry per person please.) Entries close 3rd November 2013.

Why do this and why now?

We can do it now for a reasonable cost. It is much easier to add additional images into the scenes while we are in there than coming back later.

We are having fun doing it, but if we keep doing extra scenes the way we have been, we will run out of funds before we finish. We either have to stop or find a way of paying for it.

We also have more than one game in us and we are hoping to put some funds together to get us started on the next one when the time comes.








Monday 21 October 2013

Weekly Update

It has been another interesting week for us. Those of you who donated $20 or more to our crowd funding received a visual novel version of the Part 1. That visual novel uses the same engine as the game and not so popular with some of the eCommerce sites. So, we are going to do a PDF version. If you already have the Visual Novel, you will get it free. For everyone else, you will be able to buy it at the EAZ store when we have the it ready if you feel so inclined.

We are also looking at some new options for taking the game further. If you followed the crowd funding then you will be aware that we did not make any of the extension goals, but if we can raise the funds in other ways then we would still like take on some of those things, like the animations in the previous post.

Our intention is to keep the basic game free, but we may also release make a deluxe version that will be available for a modest amount at the EAZ store.

We are keeping our options open, but the deluxe version will probably have extended scenes, animations, a gallery, and an alternate card set to name a few things.

Anyhow, I want to see how you feel about all that, so keep a look out for a survey in the next few days.

I am almost finished with the Part 2 intro sequence, well I thought I was finished, but our art director pointed out some deficiencies in my art work. This is what happens when you let your coder near an art program. :D

Still, with luck I will have something out this weekend. I have some free time coming up, so I am hoping I can make some more progress now that I have gotten the initial artists briefs out of the way.

So, to contrast the sexiness of the previous post, here is a frame of the comedy relief kind. :)

Yes, Bailey is trying to squeeze into Kal's armour and it is not going so well. :)


Alluring Dzazd

I share with you my test animation of Dzazd.

Sunday 13 October 2013

Weekly Update

They year is flying by. Spring has sprung, the days are getting warmer and Christmas is just around the corner. I am looking forward to the break because it will give me a couple of uninterrupted weeks to focus on Redemption.

The artwork is coming along well and here are a couple more cards for you to enjoy, Zarielle by Elynda, and Kitaxxa by jclyde6108:







Sunday 6 October 2013

Weekly Update

It has been another busy week. Going from a team of two to a team of eight has taken a bit of adjustment. We have been working to get everyone on the same page with the story and with graphical representation of the characters.

Here is another BGrisset image for your enjoyment.



Stay tuned. There will be lots more to come this month. :)



Monday 30 September 2013

Weekly Update

Well, it has been another busy week for us, but not with a lot to show right now. I have been working on more scene descriptions and the artists have been getting into their scenes.

With a total of eight of us working on the project now, I am taking on more of the role of project manager now as well as everything else.

We are aiming for a full beta of Part 2 in about April at this point, but there is still a long way to go. There will be some progress releases along the way for anyone that wants to take a look and any feedback will be appreciated. It will take a while to get the game balance right I think. That is, not too hard and not too easy.

The scenes you have seen of the court so far were in the small audience hall. We have just found the perfect model for the main hall.  http://www.daz3d.com/sun-hall Sadly, it is not quite compatible with the software we are using so we are having to some work to adapt it, but I think the result will be worth it.

Monday 23 September 2013

Dzazd & Bailey - Malo's New Pics Begin

I have spent a lot of time trying to co-ordinate the new Artist Team.  Finally I got around to updating my own versions of the characters and getting my first new sequence started.  Here is Bailey entering Dzazd's apartment.

Friday 20 September 2013

Whats happening this week!

I don't like to take up your time with stuff when I don't have a lot to show, but I was asked, so if you do want to know, here is what has been happening this week.

BGrisset1 has been powering through the first sequence. (Do look at his other work on Erotic Art Zone of you get the chance.) He is working on Red Knight #2 mostly at present, one of the first characters that Bailey will "get to know".

Elynda and JClyde6108 (check them out on Erotic Art Zone too) have been working on getting the player character ready for their scenes which, as they are using different 3D software to BGrisset1, Malo, Dawn, and I is, a necessary step.

For those who are interested, Elynda and JClyde6108 are using DAZ Studio while the rest of us are using Poser. The programs are 80% compatible, but we had done a couple of things that had to be done differently in the other.

Malo is tackling the Dark Elven ambassador character first and the first scenes are being done there.

On the writing side of things, a fairly common suggestion has been to make the scenes a little less terse. What can I say, I am your average computer programmer. Writing nice sexy and engaging dialog is not my strong suit.

So, when I asked in the Story section of Futanari Palace if anyone was interested in helping, I was surprised when I got a couple of offers straight away. Not only did I get offers of help, but I got help from people whose stories I have read and enjoyed enormously. What was great was they had both played Part 1 and had really liked it. 

If you have played Corruption of Champions, you have probably already encountered some of dxasmodeus's writing. Dxadmodeus's writings partially inspired the tentacle beast character. I would not have considered putting one in had it not been for dxasmodeus. Fire Fly has a complementary skill set, having covered more of the emotional process of male to futa transformation in their writings as well as other things.

I have spent a lot of this week putting together story notes and creating more so that Fire Fly and dx can get started.

If I can just get a bit ahead of everyone, I can get back to completing the part 2 intro sequence, but I still have a lot more to do with scene descriptions and story notes which if I do now will mean you get the game faster in the long run.

So, while not a lot seems to be happening on the surface right now, we are paddling away like crazy underneath. :D


Sunday 15 September 2013

MInor bug fix release

I am issuing a new version of 1.3.3 as the last patch gave some people issues. I have tested it on a Mac and it works ok as far as I can tell. I also fixed the instant win bug again.

You can find it here: http://www.mediafire.com/download/4b14al1r6k74pt7/ROCE-R1.3.3-all.zip

You can now find it here: http://www.mediafire.com/download/ydc9bce2b7j5ax2/ROCE-R1.3.3-all.zip

Apparently Windows does not like the Mac built zip file (in particular winrar and 7zip declared it broken although built in zip on Windows did not complain). I rebuilt the distribution on Windows and re-uploaded. 7zip gave an all clear and it still runs on the Mac.

I am nearly out of the hole I was in getting scene descriptions out for the new artists so I hope to have something new for you soon.

Thanks to everyone who continues to support us and offers great suggestions. We are listening. I am looking to get some of the dialog expanded in Part 1 to add a bit more variety and fill out the background a bit more.

The suggestion on voice acting was not something I had not considered before. I would be interested in what people thought about that in general so please let me know what you think. It is not something we would do right now, but more likely when we are near to getting Part 2 complete if we could get enough volunteers.


Friday 13 September 2013

A Quick Update

Just letting you know that we are all still alive and working hard. I found that darned last scoring bug and I hope to have the game working on a Macs again soon.

Malo has found some time to get back into things and is throwing themselves into the dark elven ambassador character, Dzazd. That's the Orange #10 in the deck.

The others have started on Red Knight #2, our somewhat demonic looking ambassador the Orange #6 and Kitaxxa, our furry ambassador Orange #7.

I have been kept busy, writing up the scenes so that the talented ones in the team know what they have to create. I am having trouble staying ahead of them at present.

As a sneak peak, here is the new Red Knight #2 card by BGrisset:
If you have taken a look at the recent versions you will have seen that there are some new options on the card game. To help you keep track of whose heart you have won, you will be able to unlock nude versions of the cards. If you find it too confusing or distracting, you will be able to turn it off.

Stay tuned and maybe next time we will give you a sneak peak of one of those.

Monday 2 September 2013

For anyone that wants to try breaking things!

Release 1.3.2 is here: http://www.mediafire.com/download/2q513m77nv92qmx/ROCE-R1.3.2-all.zip

It is only partially tested and I have not been able to test it all the way through.

The checkpoint system has been re-written although it should not look to much different. You will notice that it tells you when checkpoints are taking. I have laid the groundwork for more enhancements but they are not there yet.

I have done major work to the scoring system, hopefully making the instant win and doubling scenarios now work properly.

Update:
I broke the monthly card handling. :(  [ thanks Castor and 3dtab7 ]
This patch fixes that: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/44227178/ROCE-R1.3.2-patch.zip

Update 2:
Fixes bug in bed time training and it should now work on Mac and Linux.
Apply patch to 1.3.2: http://www.mediafire.com/download/r2h5erj2d6g0v83/ROCE-R1.3.3P-all.zip
(will overwrite the previous patch)

There may be yet more bugs as I have not finished my own play through yet although I am nearly there now.


Saturday 31 August 2013

A Quick Update

The Crowd Funding has officially closed. For small project like ours, Offbeatr keeps 25% of what they collect (not what was pledged) so we will get the rest in about a month when their credit card processor pays them. At this stage, it looks like we will receive around $3,000 from them.

Malo has been giving our prospective artists the background material they need to get the idea of what we are after and we will be getting some commissions out in the next few weeks.

Meanwhile I am back working on the code. I have done major work to the scoring code, revamping it so it is more straight forward and fixing some of the bugs.

To those of you who said that the instant win scenarios we coming up too often, you were absolutely right. The detection code for 4 pairs was written by someone who ... Well, lets not go into that, it is fixed now or at least it will be in the next release. (You know I am annoyed with myself when I started talking about myself in the third person.)

Somewhere else in the code however, I have broken save game. I have been tweaking the event system for Part 2 and I broke it. I am trying to work that out right now and will get back to it when I finish this blog entry.

Release 1.4 will not be backwards compatible for saved games sorry. But, if you are one of our $100+ sponsors, you will have cheat mode. Release 1.4 should be out this weekend unless the save game bug is worse than I think it is.

I am aiming for 1.4.1 next weekend which will have a bit more of the setup for Part 2. It will be the last little bit before you start testing your card playing skills again. :)

The first version of this update recommended you go have a look at eroticartzone to see the galleries of our prospective artists. The real site seems to have disappeared in the last 12 hours or so and been replaced by something I would not trust. 

EroticArtZone.com is back. Go and take a look at some of the art, especially our own Malo.



Monday 26 August 2013

You did it! We made it!

OMG, OMG, OMG we got $1,500 in pledges in the last 12 hours of the Crowd Funding putting us over the top. I am still in shock.

A huge chunk of thanks goes to our Platinum Sponsor Randomguy664. Also a huge chunk of thanks to Gold Sponsor Mornox who was watching when a pledge was cancelled in the dying minutes and got us back above the goal.

Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou to everyone who pledged. We won't let you down.

The team is now getting on with planning things to make best use of the money that has been entrusted to us.

$20+ sponsors should now have their Visual Novel. If you are having problems downloading it, let me know and I will give you an alternate download address. IE's Smartscreen seems to be objecting to it for some of us, but it likes the identical version on my Dropbox?!

Apologies to the $100+ sponsors. I am still getting your first version ready. I am trying to nail the instant win bug first.



Friday 23 August 2013

If you don't have a credit card!

A few people have said to me that they would like to support us, but they don't have a credit card. This seems to be a common problem on the internet, but surprisingly enough, it does have a simple solution:

You can pay with a gift card. I sometimes use them on sites I am not sure about on the internet. You don't even have to use your real name or address.

I use Mastercard branded gift cards from Woolworth's supermarkets here in Australia (the green ones that say they are for online shopping). The card costs $4 and you can load them up with as much cash as you want. You use them as a normal debit card but with a fair degree of anonymity. I have used one at Offbeatr to back another's project successfully.

Caution: The Offbeatr folks tell me that some US issued gift cards do not work for purchases outside the US and Offbeatr's credit card processor is in Europe.

PS. Part 2 will have bad ends. Good thing you have checkpoints. :)

To misquote Python. "You don't so much fly as plummet."

PPS. For those who have not noticed, there is a new link on the right hand side to "A Servant of the Empire". This is the origin story for one of the main characters in the game. I wrote it for a story contest and well, the winner did note it as a story that he really liked. Maybe you will too. :)

Thursday 22 August 2013

A Very Welcome Addition

A few people have asked if we could have a slower Male to Futa transition in the game. GoldenDawn from TFGamesSite went one better and asked can we please have a slower Male to Futa transition and can I do it?

After picking myself up off the floor and having a look at GoldenDawn's gallery I said YES ABSOLUTELY. I later found out that GoldenDawn is using the same 3d art software as Malocula and I so that's a huge bonus and will help us keep continuity.

The new sequence will be incorporated as part of the dialog tree meaning that you will see either the new or old transformation based on your responses to the situation.

While this is GoldenDawn's first contribution to the project, it will not be the only one. She will be helping out with other art in the game as well.

3D Art is very time consuming so please don't underestimate what sort of commitment this is. So please join me in saying:

Welcome GoldenDawn to Team HanaFudaFuta.

Sunday 18 August 2013

Last Week for our Crowd Funding and we need help

Our crowd funding ends on 26th of August in just 8 days and it is looking a bit grim at present.

I am in the process of posting prompts around a few sites which you may have seen. Some of the rewards are strictly once off chances such as access to the version with built in cheats.

Without your help it will be hard for us to maintain the quality of the art established in Part 1. We have a lot planned for Part 2. The game play gets much more interesting and there is a lot more variety in what is going on. No more more train, train, train. You know the card game now. Now you get challenged to use what you know and adapt it to new situations.

We have new features coming that will allow you to mitigate some of the randomness in the card game at key points. Save up your spell points so you can peek at the opponents hand or maybe even steal it from them. Charm your opponent so they play to lose.

You will still be challenged. There won't be enough spell points to use them all the time.

The balance of sex scenes vs story scenes will be higher. Pillow talk will be a key way in which you will gain information to Redeem the Empress and earn spell points.

Please help us so we can do Part 2 justice.

http://offbeatr.com/project/redemption-of-the-crimson-empress-part-2-67812055153

Thursday 15 August 2013

Nemesis, thy name is Avira

For the last few months, Avira antivirus has been giving us what seemed to be and what I am now sure is a false positive. None of the mainstream AVs had a problem and Avira is known for its false positives.

Avira has been known for complaining about Renpy games and it even rejected the SDK for a while, so I had put the problem aside until I had more information to go on and then someone told me that none of their other Renpy games were being reported any more.
 
To cut a long story short I have finally narrowed it down to the one file in the game that Avira does not like. Would you believe, it is the game icon.

This little 16x16 pixel icon seems to be the problem. If I include it in the build, Avira complains. If I don't it doesn't. Interestingly enough, Trend Micro House Call thinks it is ok, but if I include the Mac version of the icon in the build, it complains.

Anyhow, I have been scanning using VirusTotal.com which has a 64Mb limit so I have been using a cut down build without all the images. Could someone who has Avira please check the following: http://www.mediafire.com/download/ia05zdpm4c470zn/ROCE-R1.3.0S-all.zip

The game will now use the default icons instead of the custom ones. As near as I can tell that should fix everyone. Oh, and this is a full build so it is 300Mb sorry.

Just heard from one person Avira is still complaining. Can someone confirm?

Sunday 11 August 2013

First Navigation Screen

Bailey is wondering what she should do. Should she go back to bed and dream of fun things or should she actually get out and try and do some of the things she is dreaming about. Decisions, decisions ...


Wednesday 7 August 2013

Pitching a Tent

The last few days I have been working on one of the core screens around which Part 2 will take place. Bailey's centre of operations is her apartment, but she can't be on the go all the time, sometimes she will need to rest, sometimes even by herself.

That does not mean that she won't be dreaming of other things though. It has taken me a couple of days to get the graphics software to drape the sheet the way I like it, but I think it is pretty close now.

PS.
On the fund raising front, we hit 54% and we have had our first Gold Sponsor. With 20 days to go we still need to raise another $2269 or we get nothing and all the money is returned. If you have not donated, please consider doing so. The money will be going to people who can do the above much better than I and do it in a lot less than 2 days. :)


Saturday 3 August 2013

Bug fix for 1.3

A bug has been found in 1.3. If you happen to score Honour of the Court while Kal is taking Bailey on the bed after the first time, the game can crash.

The new patch is here: http://www.mediafire.com/download/685gro3ow6zam3n/ROCE-R1.3.1-patch.zip

It is cumulative with 1.3, so you can install it straight overt the top of 1.2.3.

There is still a known bug with getting 0 points in some of the instant win scenarios. I will have a fix for that in the next few days.

Friday 2 August 2013

Release 1.3 (Really Release 2.0 minus 0.7)

Well, I finally have the first draft of the images done for the intro sequence to Part 2. There is no game play yet, this is just a straight story fragment.

You can download it here: http://www.mediafire.com/download/lvy5kh9rp2fkvke/ROCE-R1.3.0-patch.zip, but it is a patch on Release 1.2.3 so you should download that first if you don't already have it.

To install, just copy it over the 1.2.3 version, overwriting any clashes (all 1400 odd of them).

There is still one more sequence to go before you get into the game proper, but this should start to give you an idea of the main game setting.

As always, I love getting feedback, so please tell me what you like and what you don't and what's broken.

Sunday 28 July 2013

Part 2 Intro is Coming Along

I have been working on the Part 2 Intro. It sets up a bit more of the story and introduces you to some of the characters. No sex scenes yet, but I will be leaving those to the real artists.

If all goes as planned, you will see the completed work by the end of the week. In the meantime, here is Bailey getting shot down for the first time. :)


Monday 22 July 2013

High Priestess Mark 4

I saw this character on sale and I though it would be perfect for the High Priestess.

She is a bit nasty and slimy while appearing to be prim and proper, preaching chastity in a world with a population whose numbers are in severe decline.
 

What do you think?

Saturday 20 July 2013

Bailey Alternates

If you have had a look at Offbeatr, you will know that one of our extension goals is to have the ability to choose from a couple of avatars in the game. We will of course, have the original Bailey, but if we reach the extension goal, we will have two alternates as well. I have put together some candidates for you to look at.

Feel free to let us know which ones you like or what you might like in something different.






By the way, we have passed the 25% mark at Offbeatr for the base goal. A huge thanks to everyone who has pledged.

Wednesday 17 July 2013

What's Coming In Part 2

All the characters that you have seen in the card deck
  • 3 Red Knights - Prim, proper, each waiting for the right man to be their life's companion.
  • 3 Blue Knights - Enjoying their life to the full although they can be a bit indiscrete at times.
  • 4 Green Knights - They do most of the work while the Reds and Blues get the glory.
  • A Doctor, secure in the science of her occupation, staying mostly in her infirmary/lab where no magic is allowed.
  • The Imperial Mage, 29th in her line. Her ancester was the first hermaphrodite on Eldara.
  • The Astrologer,  a talented viewer of the portents of what is to come, but lately her interpretations have been a bit off.
  • The Historian, the Empress's tutor when she was a child and the only male she will tolerate in her court at present.
  • The Jester, a human female from your world whose acclimatisation was not handled as well as yours. Her sanity has suffered.
  •  3 Ambassadors, each from a different world, separated not in space, but in parallel dimensions. The demonic, the dark, and the furry.
  • The High Priestess, prim, proper, and ruthless, devoted to the teachings of the Red Guardian.
  • The Empress, aloof, commanding, and frequently taking her cues from the High Priestess.
Each character has part of the story. Can you learn what each one needs to drive her wild in bed? Can you break down their inhibitions until they give up their secrets.

Rendezvous in the gardens, late night visits to their rooms, conversations in court, or going on patrol with a knight.





Get help from your first teacher who happens also to be the Empress's personal guard creature.
Find out what you need to get past the aloof shell and Redeem the Crimson Empress.

New potions and magic items will help you by making the mini games easier.
A spell point system will allow you to trade cards and peek at the opponent's hand if you have chosen the right allies.

Hundreds of new scenes, to be created by talented artists.
Over 10,000 words of new dialog.
Mid - 2014 if we get your support. (Supporter will get early peeks at parts of the game as it is done.)

Friday 12 July 2013

Project is Live on Offbeatr

It has taken a little longer than I expected, but the project is now live on Offbeatr and we are taking pledges. A few early birds have already been generous and we have made a great start. :)

Special Thanks to Rule34 and Milkman Dan for their help in raising the game's in various forums.

Saturday 6 July 2013

Just 26 votes to go

Thanks to everyone who has voted at Offbeatr. We just need another 26 and we get to the next stage.

No more images to show you just yet, but I am working on it. I have been collecting resources this week. most-digital-creations.com has some great free and low cost resources and I have been cruising the specials at Renderosity and RuntimeDNA.

Now that I have done that, I will be getting back to the first throne room sequence.

Some interesting stats for those who may be curious:
  • Release 1.2 has been downloaded 2570 times.
  • Google Blogger's stats tell us that there are a lot of hits on the blog from Europe and North America with Europe in the lead.
  • I am a little glum that my own country did not make it into the top 10. :(
Thanks for keeping tabs on us. More images coming soon. :)


Saturday 29 June 2013

Mac Patch

Apologies to the Mac users out there. The game may be blowing up on you. There is a spot in game where it writes a debug file and on a Mac, that does not seem cause a problem. You can apply the following patch to 1.2 to fix it. It cumulative with the other patches.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/lom6zi3t5tivbn6/ROCE-R1.2.3-Patch.zip


Wednesday 26 June 2013

Sapphire Mark 2 - Some Test Images

I took the Fugitive body, but added a different skin (SSS Vanilla Sky). Note that you will get to see more than this in the game. ;)


Replacement for 1.2.1 Patch

Here is the replacement patch for 1.2.1: http://www.mediafire.com/download/hf8pg87sowoo79h/ROCE-R1.2.2-Patch.zip

1.2.1 was missing one small but essential graphic for the mini game options screen. Apologies to those who downloaded 1.2.1.

Please unpack the patch into the 1.2 release folder, overwriting all.

Friday 21 June 2013

First Court Scene

Well, I am trying to get things ready for the first court scene. Not the entire cast will be there, but there will be a few. This will be more of a dramatic scene than a sexy one, but necessary for the story to progress in a meaningful way.

The card images you have seen so far are prototypes for the characters and many are not final yet. I have been looking at the High Priestess character and I am tempted to use a different model for her. Here are some candidates, the middle one being the one on the current cards:

I am also thinking of re-casting Sapphire the Blue Knight. The current one is this FW Nina from Renderosity (http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/pd-nina/91805/)

I am thinking though that the character would be better cast as the Fugitive: http://www.runtimedna.com/FUGITIVE-PRO.html

Sapphire is the lead Blue Knight, strong, outgoing, and if she has the choice of resolving a situation with a sword or a cock would enthusiastically choose the latter, but more than capable of using the former.

I would love to hear you opinions on casting. What do you think?

Sunday 16 June 2013

1.2.1 Patch Available

This is a small enhancement to the minigame. Thanks to all of you who suggested having the ability to sort your hand. This is now available in the minigame options screen.

You can sort cards by number or by card type. By default, your hand is unsorted as it was in 1.2.

The patch is here: ... patch is broken, in process of fixing ...

Please unpack the patch into the 1.2 folder and overwrite any files with the same name. There are no graphics files in the patch to keep it small, so you will need 1.2 as well.

Enjoy :)

Sunday 9 June 2013

Release 1.2

Release 1.2 of Part 1 is now available.

You have been asking for it, so I finally put my head down and did it! Yes, we have standard numbers on the cards!!!!

It took me ages to believe that you guys just could not love the Mayan glyphs. :O

There is a new options screen in the minigame and in that you can set:
  • Mayan or Arabic Numbers.
  • Disable animation on the cards, moves are instantaneous.
  • Show center match hints when hovering over cards in your hand.
  • Show nudes of card characters as they come to your side. (does not do anything yet)

A number of people commented on the Ambassadors being hard to differentiate, so I have added a little star to the top left hand corner of their cards. I hope that helps :)

PS.

Please Vote if you haven't

Part 2 needs artwork and while I can do some myself, we will be relying on commissions for the key works. Even if you aren't able to sponsor us, voting will get us to the point where we can start accepting sponsorships. If we can get to the $5,000 goal, we can commission basic art for Part 2.

We are over half way in the voting stakes with 110 votes received and 100 votes to go.


Friday 7 June 2013

Votes Votes Votes

We broke through the halfway mark today. :D

107 votes means we are more than half way to the 210 we need.
Thanks to everyone who has supported us so far. We really appreciate it.

To celebrate, here is the latest image I have been working on. It is a long way up from the tunnels where Bailey has been living to the sky gardens that sit atop the spires of Empress's palace. Here Bailey is being escorted through one of the lower chambers on the way.


Tuesday 4 June 2013

RC1.1 Uploaded

Fixes two minor problems:
  • Hitting the Escape key twice in a row in the card game caused a crash.
  • Debug menus were left in the game.
New download is over on the right. :)

Sunday 2 June 2013

Release Candidate 1 Available

The Beta for Part 1 is nearly over. There is a new release available for download, no password this time.

If no major issues are found, then this will be it for Part1 for a while. Some changes will be required when Part 2 is nearly complete as some of the characters on the cards are being re-designed.

This version contains:
  • Minor bugfixes
  • Minor dialog changes and fixes
  • 6 Additional screens in the tutorial
  • Additional guidance on the first screen
  • A revised help page

Enjoy :)

Thursday 30 May 2013

First scene for Part 2

Since her arrival on Eldara, Bailey has been living deep inside a giant rock. Think of a rounder taller Uluru, but riddled with tunnels (if you are not an Aussie, you may have to Google that). Bailey is about to find out what is up on top, if Sapphire and Amaranth can stop arguing long enough to get here there.


Sunday 26 May 2013

What rewards would you like?

What incentives would attract you to putting some money in to our Crowd Funding?

On the game side, the more money we get, the more we can commission. We can do things like we did in Part 1 where Kal goes down on Bailey. You don't get the same scene each time, you get one of 3 scenes.

So, we could have alternate scenes for the same act (eg having sex in the royal gardens. [You will be surprised how often that happens. :) ] ).

We could have whole alternate sequences. As your partners start to like you more, they get more adventurous.

On the personal rewards side, would people like to see. The names of a lot of the characters are themed, but there are minor NPCs people could have naming rights for, but then what happens when someone chooses something ghastly.

The character designs we are using  we have to purchase and their hair also separately. There are a number of vendors who sell some great ones.

I am considering this one at the moment: http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/exnem-sasha-for-v4/99180

Pretty much anything from here though: http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?TopID=268274.268295.269113

Is being able to choose what characters look like something that you would like?

I would love to hear suggestions for other enticements or rewards. Please post any suggestions or email me. Oncardam at hotmail.com




Friday 24 May 2013

All in one download

Add free single part download link now available. Check on the on the right hand side of this page. :)

Tuesday 21 May 2013

Raising Funds for Part 2

With Part 1 now mostly done, we are casting our eyes towards part 2. The plot is set and we are raring to go, but with Malo being ultra-busy right now, we are looking to outsource some of the artwork on commission.

If you have enjoyed our little game so far, please consider sponsoring us to get part 2 done. There are also some little extra goodies available for sponsors.

http://offbeatr.com/project/redemption-of-the-crimson-empress-part-2-67812055153

Sunday 19 May 2013

Beta 3 is out for general consumption

Beta 3 has been out for 2 days now in closed release with very few comments, so I think it is time for an open release. This is the same version that is up on FP, so if you already have that one, don't download again.

Part 1: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?1pfsg7m3gh65his
Part 2: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?cw4z394fb26ta06

You will need 7zip or similar to extract the 7z archive.

The archive password is FP_Beta_1

Not that on Windows, you only need to right click on the 001 file and use 7zip to extract, it will find and use the 002 file automatically.

The game does not need to be installed, when you extract the inner zip, you will find  Windows, Mac, and Linux executables. Use the relevant one for your platform.

I hope you enjoy the game. If you are not familiar with the Japanese card game of Koi Koi (played with a Hana Fuda deck), you may find the card game tricky at first. There are a number of general Koi Koi card game tutorials on the net.

Just remember Ribbons -> Knights; Animals -> Court and you should be able to work the rest out. The yakus (scoring combinations) can be displayed using the 'h' key.

Enjoy :)

Wednesday 15 May 2013

Beta 3 Is Almost Ready

This weekend will see the release of Beta 3 of Part 1. The artwork is finally finished and I hope most of the bugs have been eliminated.

There have been quite a few requests for an easy mode as some people find the card game tedious while others love it.

I am considering an auto-play mode like the lock pick game in Oblivion. Of course that would be quite a lot more difficult in a card game. Still, once beta 3 is out there will be a bit of time to work on that before starting on Part 2.

Monday 15 April 2013

Sunday Update

I am going to try to update the blog weekly now as we are getting closer to beta for Part 1. With a bit of luck, it may be done by the end of the month.

Malo is making great progress with the artwork and I am getting it all integrated with the game code. The art and the story are feeding off each other to a degree so little adaptations are required as we go.

I still have music and sound effects to do. There is not going to be a lot and it is going to be fairly simple, but I still need to get it done.

Here is the latest Yaku page so you can see what progress we have made from the one posted earlier:


Sunday 7 April 2013

We are getting there!

Malocula and I are on our last sequences before we release the Part 1 Beta. The music and sound are coming along too although they will be very basic.

We are looking at options for funding Part 2 as Part 1 has been a drain on both our budgets. Options include selling a companion comic to part 1 or trying to get crowd funding from offbeatr.com as Fenoxo has done so successfully.

The card game has been re-written since the last update and all of the character cards now have characters.

The end of the month may a bit optimistic for the beta release, but we will try for it.

The following image is from the final sequence in Part 1. To find out what comes next, you will have to wait and play the game. :)




Sunday 3 February 2013

Another Status Update

Things are coming along really well. We only have 4 sequences to go and bit of tidy up to do. Well, a lot of tidy up really. I just updated the blog with the new splash screen.

Our scene count is up to 108 images and it looking like we will hit well over 120 before we finish part 1. So much for my initial estimate of 50.

While Malo has been working on some of the most amazing images (that you are going to have to play the game to see), I have been debugging and tweaking the interface.

Here is a sneak peak at where things are at right now:

As you can see, the cards still need a little work, but we are getting there but it is looking really neat against Malo's awesome background.

Saturday 5 January 2013

Status Update

Ok, so its been over a year since work started on the game. The good news is that we are still going. Malo took over the graphics side of things a couple of months ago and the graphics side is finally moving along, but we have a fair way to go.

The game is being broken up into two parts, part one which should be ready early to middle this year and part 2 which I hope to have out probably out later in the early or early in the next. Being graphics intensive, it takes a long time to get it done. We have hit 57 scenes so far and probably have another 20 or so to go just for part 1. That excludes card faces and side images for the text panes.

Oncardam is  understudying Malo on the graphics side and doing some of the simpler scenes. Theromen is taking a look over the story line and trying to work out what the heck we are on about.

We asked the Futanari Palace  mods to close our game development threads because the whole exercise has become much more expensive that we expected. 3D assets are not cheap. We will probably go donateware and maybe also sell the game at some point, and that goes against the FP games dev conditions. Still, the game will be free to FP members until it is done and maybe after that.

When the game is ready for beta, We will post something here and in the Games section at FP, so people can take a look and see what they think. That will probably be a month or two yet.

At the moment, Malo has posted a few of the more recent images they have been working on below. I think you will agree they are excellent.